Jim Donaldson: Bruins get bitter taste of their own medicine

BOSTON — It was sudden death. It wasn’t overtime, but it still was sudden death.

BOSTON — It was sudden death.

It wasn’t overtime, but it still was sudden death.

One minute, it seemed as if the Bruins were headed for Chicago for Game Seven.

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The next, they were hanging their heads, their season finished, over, having come to a shocking, stunning, abrupt and painful end.

One minute, almost literally.

Officially, it was in the final 1:16 that the Blackhawks stole the game from the Bruins and took home Lord Stanley’s Cup.

In reality, it was a matter of 17 seconds.

Talk about sudden death.

Boston had taken a 2-1 lead on a goal by Milan Lucic with 7:49 left to play and the Bruins still were clinging to that lead as the game moved into the final 90 seconds and Chicago pulled goaltender Corey Crawford.

It was eerily similar to what the Bruins had done against Toronto, in Game Seven of their opening playoff series, when, seemingly beaten, 4-2, they scored two goals in the final 90 seconds to force overtime, then went on to win, 5-4.

Except the Blackhawks didn’t need an extra period.

Bryan Bickell tied the score with 1:16 remaining and then, with the Bruins still reeling from that disappointment, Dave Bolland poked home the rebound of Johnny Oduya’s shot that caromed off the post with 59 seconds to go.

Just like that, it was over.

The game. The season. The Bruins’ dreams of winning their second Cup in three seasons.

The next thing the B’s knew, the Blackhawks where hoisting the Cup over their heads, celebrating on Boston’s home ice.

“It hurts to see them hoisting the Cup,” said Boston’s Patrice Bergeron, who knows a thing or two about pain — and playing with it.

He was on the ice for Game Six despite, he said, a broken rib, torn cartilage in his rib cage, and a separated shoulder. All that was on top of having been taken to the hospital in Chicago after Game Five because there was concern he may have injured his spleen.

But the only pain Bergeron and his teammates seemed to be feeling in the despondent Boston locker room was emotional, not physical.

“We had a chance to force Game Seven,” Bergeron said. “It’s tough to put into words how we’re feeling right now. “

It certainly looked as if there was going to be a Game Seven.

Indeed, it seemed fitting that this epic classic of a Stanley Cup final series go the distance.

But the determined and talented Blackhawks wouldn’t let that happen.

Throughout the playoffs, the Bruins had been the ultimate survivors.

Down two goals with less than 90 seconds to play in Game Seven of their opening series against Toronto, the Bruins rallied to send that game into overtime, when they won, 5-4.

After that, it seemed they couldn’t lose.

Not when they lost veteran defensemen Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference to injuries against the Rangers and had to bring up rookies Torey Krug — who scored four goals in his first five NHL playoff games — and Matt Bartkowski from Providence.

Not even after they lost Greg Campbell, who suffered a broken leg when he went down to block a shot in Game Three of the conference finals against the Penguins, but got up and hobbled around the ice for nearly a minute as the Bruins killed yet another Pittsburgh power play.

Then, in the second period of Game Five against Chicago, the Bruins lost Bergeron, one of their top scorers, an outstanding defensive forward, and an absolute wizard in the faceoff circle.

But he was back on the ice for Game Six, and so, even though they were a game away from elimination Monday night, there was ample reason for optimism that the Bruins would stay alive.

“Just when everybody thinks they’re down,” Boston coach Claude Julien said of his team after the morning skate, “they love that challenge of proving people wrong. I mean, we’ve been knocked down so many times for all different reasons, but we’re very capable of bouncing back.”

Instead, the Bruins were bounced out.

“I don’t know what happened,” said David Krejci, slowly shaking his head as he stood in front of his locker. “It just did. It’s going to hurt for while.”

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Seidenberg said. “It was a tough feeling to give up the tying goal that close to the end. To give up the second (goal) was even worse.”

After Boston scored a goal in the first period, and Chicago scored the equalizer in the second, the tension mounted as the seconds ticked away and the minutes went by in the third period, to the point where it was much thicker than the uneven ice surface, melting in the heat of the second day of summer.

When Lucic scored, it seemed as if winter would last another couple of days.